Leah McLaren: If I want my son to respect women, I need to teach him to embrace the 'girlish'
The other day I was sitting in the park with James, 3, when I picked a dandelion and handed it to him as a present.

“No way, Mummy,” he said, pushing away my gift.
Forcing Kids To Stick To Gender Roles Can Actually Be Harmful To Their Health. Raising children in societies that adhere to rigid gender roles, with fixed ideas about what should be considered “masculine” and “feminine,” can actually be detrimental to their physical and mental health, according to a study that observed 14-year-olds’ interactions over a three month period.

“Usually we think of gender as natural and biological, but it’s not… We actually construct it in ways that have problematic and largely unacknowledged health risks,” lead researcher Maria do Mar Pereira, the deputy director for the University of Warwick’s Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, explained in an interview with ThinkProgress. Pereira drew her conclusions after being embedded in a class of teenagers in Lisbon, Portugal. Pereira observed both boys and girls regulating their behavior in potentially harmful ways in order to adhere to gender norms. “All of the girls were within very healthy weights, but they were all restricting their intake of food in some way.
Comment élever des féministes. J’ai trois fils âgés de deux, trois et cinq ans et j’ai toujours trouvé essentiel de leur inculquer des valeurs féministes.

The teacher wrote: “beautifully written! For a boy!” So what’s the message here? Some argue that boys are slower than girls to develop the fine motor coordination that facilitates beautiful handwriting.
Tempeh-princess: afternoonsnoozebutton: Have...
The real boy crisis: 5 ways America tells boys not to be “girly”
The ability to feel what others feel has many well-documented benefits, including, for empathetic people, greater psychological and physical health.

The real and socially significant positive impact of empathy, however, is the ways in which it affects behavior toward others. People who are empathetic are less aggressive and prone to denigrate others; they are predisposed to act with care and compassion; they have increased egalitarian beliefs and act with less prejudice and stereotype-based hatred. Empathetic behaviors, however, are associated with being female. And weak.
[HUMEUR] Fille = jolie ; garçon = fort (Petit Bateau). DANGER.
Peut-être avez-vous entendu parler de cette polémique sur les derniers bodys de la marque Petit Bateau pour les nourrissons.

Republished here with permission. Dear Santa, What I want for Christmas is for people to stop objectifying my daughter.
5 Myths About Gender Neutral Parenting. How To Break The Ice With Little Girls That Doesn't Involve Commenting On Their Appearance. Tea and Feminism. Remember Storm? Checking in on the baby being raised gender-neutral. It's been more than two years since we first met a chubby-cheeked 4-month-old named Storm. Back then, Storm's parents weren't saying whether their child was a boy or a girl.

In an attempt to mitigate at least some of the gendered messages children are blitzed with, only a handful of people knew the baby's sex. "A tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a standup to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place? ...)
," parents Kathy Witterick and David Stocker wrote in an email to family and friends after their third child's birth.
Girl's Gone Child: "We need more Maps to Manhood."
A few days ago, the following slide was brought to my attention via a tweet from Steph Guthrie via Jeff Perera who regularly speaks about gender roles, specifically, masculinity. It reminded me of a conversation Archer and I had about "motherhood.

" It reminded me of a conversation Archer and I had about violence. It reminded me of many conversations Archer and I have had.
24 Kids Who Are Clearly Being Raised Right. Fille n’est pas un gâteau. Nowel dernier.
Why Gender-Specific Toys Are Harming Girls. Stéréotypes de genre. Stride Rite needs to give kid more choices, not less. Since my letter to Stride Rite about how its gender stereotyped marketing limits all kids, hundreds of commenters on Jezebel, Daily Mail, Huffington Post, Fox News, and this blog are upset for the same reason: (This one from Daily Mail) Normal boys will NOT wear pink, girly shoes.

It’s just a fact of nature. That is the reason society and marketers accept different preferences for different genders. Get over it! Who wants to live in a world where there are two genders who all look alike, have the same preferences, etc.
Even little kids have a wage gap.

Pink Boys

'Boys will be boys' in U.S., but not in Asia. May 22, 2013 — A new study shows there is a gender gap when it comes to behavior and self-control in American young children -- one that does not appear to exist in children in Asia. In the United States, girls had higher levels of self-regulation than boys. Self-regulation is defined as children's ability to control their behavior and impulses, follow directions, and persist on a task. It has been linked to academic performance and college completion, in past studies by Oregon State University researchers.
How to Talk to Little Girls.

I went to a dinner party at a friend’s home last weekend, and met her five-year-old daughter for the first time. Little Maya was all curly brown hair, doe-like dark eyes, and adorable in her shiny pink nightgown. I wanted to squeal, “Maya, you’re so cute! Look at you! Turn around and model that pretty ruffled gown, you gorgeous thing!”